Christopher Brown

I think my new favorite quote, and the thing that will stick with me the most is: "Learning is not attained by chance; it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence" – Abigail Adams, First Lady to President John Adams

Students have to be shown how the information, projects, and hard work will pay off later. This will cause them to seek out new informaiton and even more expanded knowledge with a fervor that they didn't know they possessed. If you can get them to see how it is vital for them, they are more… >>>

Oddly enough, the biggest thing that I took from this has already been discussed in other trainings. It is all about making sure that the students know that you are a real person, not a bot, and that you're there for them if they need it. Also, you have to make the subject matter fun. I know that not everything is a barrel of laughs, but we need to take that dry material and turn it into something they're asking more about. Whether it is relating it to real applications or letting them guide the lesson. For instance, I have… >>>

This is sometimes difficult. I have had students who love the pressure of the time crunch and they will wait until the last minute to do things. I am not that person. I like to get everything done early if possible. So that difference in personality can be difficult to overcome, but I have learned to harness the lateness and show them how it can be beneficial to do things early. Granted, some still don't adhere to it and turn things in just in the nick of time.

Time for a confession. I am TERRIBLE at delegation. I am the person who has to do everything. If you're struggling, I want to jump in and do it for you. I have worked hard to not do that in a classroom setting. Especially when I see someone getting angry. It took me a long time to get to the "guided questions" stages of teaching. A "That looks good, but if you take another look over here, you might see something else." type of statement. I had one student say he hated me, in a joking way of course. He… >>>

I rarely use this form of assessment, but the concept of personality types is the same. In fact, I have used all different manners of tests to show students that they have a set or best practices method of learning and some of them even advanced to leadership roles in groups/projects because of this. 

As a Psychology and Mental Health Counseling major, these are not new to me. In fact, when I have first term students, I often have them perform the 16 Personalities test so that we can get a better undetstanding of their preferred method of learning. Sometimes there are surprises for the students while taking this and the adjustment because of it can make learning more enjoyable.

Active learning in the ELT program is the main aspect of instruction. Students are often given a problem and asked to design the solution or discuss how to determine the best method for solving the issue. The same with the CSS classes I teach.

I think that setting expectations and rules that the students must follow can be important, but equally important is teh justification for them. Explain to them why they need to learn and understand rules, safety procedures, and why projects are important.

The critical thinking statement in the lesson should be a larger lesson on its own. Each program should have these courses on critical thinking and taking responsibility for their actions/learning.

Students taking an active interest in their learning seems like a simple concept, but often I have seen them waiting to be handed information rather then taking the lead to discover. It is difficult to get those students to interact as they feel that they are there to absorb and regurgitate rather than interact and participate.